In today's world, the Knowledge Economy as we know it is rapidly being eclipsed by something new—which may be called the Creativity Economy. What was once central to corporations—price, quality, and much of the left-brain, digitized analytical work associated with knowledge—is fast being shipped off to lower-paid, highly trained workers in under-developed or developing nations. “Knowledge” or at least its information content is gradually being commoditized.
To survive in this global marketplace, the smart companies increasingly focus on creativity. It isn't just about what you know or the analytical skills, but it's what you do with the information available to you. More and more, the global corporations care about creativity, imagination, and, above all innovation. To survive in this environment, corporations like GE™ have revamped the performance metrics for their managers. They have adopted CENCOR (calibrate, explore, create, organize, and realize). The question remains—how to systematically and methodically practice or conform to a metric like CENCOR?
The question is how one prepares to not only survive in this environment, but excel in this global economy. The present invention provides a way to systematically Understand, Organize, and Innovate (UOI). Based on concept mapping principles, the methodology of the present invention aids an individual to hone his/her problem solving skills.
The first step is to understand the problem definition. This is achieved by constructing a dynamic concept map of the problem domain. Next, the concept map is made interactive. This facilitates organization of its information content. In some embodiments, the present invention provides a solution algorithm for the concept map that—presents a set of feasible solutions for the problem at hand. A pareto-optimal solution may then be obtained from this set. Thus, the present design strategy allows smooth transition from the abstract phase to the details phase of a design task, maintaining relevance to the context.